Airport Rates Up Two Months in a Row

For the first time since July 2014, airport rates were up back-to-back months: in April at $0.59 and in May at $3.79. Denver had the highest average quote at $66.82 while San Diego had the lowest rate at $34.17.

by Staff

June 1, 2016

Airport Rates Up Two Months in a Row — Rate data provided by Rate-Highway, a leading provider of revenue management services for the auto rental industry. Rates are an average of aggregator/OTA rates for all vendors present in the markets listed on the date of the survey. These tables and graph show the average of all base rate quotes per day for an ICAR at the six or 50 airports shown, for arrivals 15 to 21 days ahead of the date of the survey, for two- and seven-day rentals.

1 min to read

With the help of Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group and Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway Inc., we are conducting rate surveys on a weekly basis and providing analysis and comments where appropriate. We publish this monthly recap in our electronic edition and more comprehensive looks in the print editions.

July 2014 rate quotes were up dramatically from the previous July, but that was caused by industry-wide fleet shortages due to recalls. Rates have been down every month but two since then, but rates turned up slightly in April and continued the trend with a $3.79 increase in May.

This is the first back-to-back increase since that July 2014 situation and bodes well for the summer.

The Northeast and Northwest averages were $62.08 and $61.15, respectively, and the other regions ranged between $44.40 and $48.07. Over the last 52 weeks, Denver had the highest average quote at $66.82 while San Diego had the lowest rate at $34.17.

There has been movement in the relationship between the three top airport brands’ (Hertz, Avis, and National) average quotes and the other five brands. In the November through March period, the spread averaged $24.62, but in April and May, the quotes moved back to a more traditional spread of under $20.